AuthorTopic: My triangle now has four sides (Read 446 times)

The opal is very thin and I already broke it once, that is the reason I am keeping it underglas. By some niracle i have a mirror polish on it so I am done working on it. I plan to set it like I showed in the video and sell it as is...

Regarding the difference between what your eyes see, and what the camera sees:Your eyes are two cameras, with a few inches between them. The fire in opals can change, sometimes drastically, even within a few degrees change in the viewing angle. Since a camera only represents one eye, you're only getting one angle on the fire, not two. Additionally, if things are out of focus, you're going to pick up a bit more color for similar reasons. Out of focus, the light is going to scatter more, etc.

Yes, the camera and the human eye definitely are different...BTW - the reason the flash opal is so thin is because I cut the rough in half to get this bottom layer which looks like a good candidate for an aggregate but it has quite a different color pattern

A nice trick for a good cheep backing that I learned my last time in Lightning Ridge was to take a cheep piece of glass from the door section of a hardware store clean the back side and spray paint it heavily (so no lite shows from the back) with a flat or semigloss spray paint. I prefer to use the semigloss. If the glass is clean and the pics are shot in a darker room with the lite coming from behind the lens you shouldn't have to do any editing around the stone.

I decided not to cut it, but to make it the featured stone in a mosiac of flash opals that will fill a 30 mm pendant cab. I have flash opals from Australian white, but I am going to try to acquire some Spencer flash opals and use them instead. I have two areas of discoloration in the Spencer that I do have and I am concerned as to how much that affects the value (?) neither go all the way through but I am afraid if I try to use a burr to remove them the stone will crack. It appears to be exceptionally brittle.

Yes not all Spencer is brittle but allot of what I have cut has been. So I understand your concern making a triplet is probably the safest way to go. Yes solid opals are almost always worth more but a cracked or crazed stone is worth nothing. Protect your investment, you can make a top gem triplet and it will still have good value and more importantly be safe. Flatten the top glue on the quartz make sure you have no bubbles, let it dry and then slowly grind off the back until you can start to see through the color bar then clean it and glue it to a black backing. that thing will be safe and it will look great. I saw a guy once who cushion cut his triplet cap and it gave the stone a very cool appearance like a kaleidoscope effect and it really increased the overall value of the stone. Just an ideagood luck cutting Adam